The release of a Blu ray player for the Xbox 360 is currently not being planned according to Microsoft even though Toshiba has announced that it will now be entering the Blu ray market.
The latest announcement of plans to ship Blu ray players by the end of 2009 by Toshiba has raised increased speculation of whether the Xbox 360 may soon be using Blu-ray even in light of previous denials by Microsoft of this happening.
When questioned about whether it would be introducing a Blu ray player into its Xbox 360 product line Microsoft replied with the same answer as before, denying that it would be doing this.
Microsoft advised “As we have stated before, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360. We have a long-standing high definition strategy that runs across gaming and premium content, and it’s a strategy that continues to pay off for us. Today, we offer the largest library of blockbuster games and offer a growing library of nearly 20,000 movies and TV episodes on Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace (more than 5,000 in HD). In addition, people have access to 12,000 films and TV episodes on Netflix Instant watch.”
To provide support for the Xbox LIVE video marketplace and the Netflix instant streaming service Microsoft advised that the Xbox LIVE service would soon incorporate the streaming of 1080p HD content.
Although there are currently no plans for Microsoft to support Blu ray, the refusal does not necessarily mean that it has ruled out the possibility of offering it in the years to come.
There is a chance that the next console to be released by Microsoft may have a Blu ray player integrated into the Xbox 360, or if not then the next-gen console that should be released in 2014 may contain Blu ray technology along with a six core processor and an SSD HDD.
Source - www.tomsguide.com